A Tour Of Venice Before Heading Home

But I’ll give up on sleep any day when I could be exploring the quiet streets of Venice. Honestly – it’s the only time there aren’t a million people milling about. It’s the perfect time for all those Instgram pictures that make it look like you’re the only one there – you know, ones we didn’t take – even though I’m not going to lie – I really wanted to. The temptation to be a poser is strong within me – I fight it every damn day.

We had booked a tour for this morning. Which was totally not what I planned to so.

I had in fact thought that I’d booked and paid for it for the day before. So when I realised what I had done I was mortified. It was that weird flush of heat that automatically rushes to your face and makes you question every choice you’ve made in your life because you’re just such a freaking idiot. Thankfully it started at like 7am and was only a couple hours long. So we still had time to do the tour before heading back on our 5 hour train ride to Rome (to be there for our flight at 11pm).

It was so weird walking through the streets when they were so quiet.

Thankfully we located our meeting point with relative ease and then found a coffee shop close by where we could enjoy our last croissant for breakfast.

After meeting our little group we got our earphone thingies and headed out. I actually can’t tell you how much I wish we’d had that tour on our first day there! She told us so much about what was going on in the city that we had absolutely no idea about! The one most annoying things is that there was this massive art exhibition that was taking place INSIDE some of the palaces. You could actually walk into these old buildings and see the inside and their art works. We only managed to go inside one and even then we had to rush. It was so annoying.

We passed through the morning market that has shrunk significantly over the years as the locals have moved out of the city to make way for the tourists.

We passed a massive shopping centre that had been completely revamped. Funnily enough we’d walked in there the day before and turned right around. Little did we know that if we had made it to the top we would have had a free picturesque view of the whole of Venice!

Another place that we passed was the marriage court where George Clooney got hitched. A totally nondescript building. So is the building that they apparently blew up in James Bond.

(the first two pics are the marriage building and the bottom one here is the James Bond one)

We continued our walk through the city stopping at wells and various other buildings steeped in hundred of years of history. It’s actually just incredible that this place is still floating. There really is a chance that one day there will be nothing left of it to see. Which is scary and incredibly sad all at the same time.

Our journey took us through the city and towards St Mark’s. I didn’t realise that we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside there, so I have one of the floor. Which too me was one of the most incredible parts of this experience. Yes the ceilings that are COVERED in hundreds of thousands of little gold glass mosaics was breathtaking. And the fact that when the guy started it he knew he would not see the end of it because it took more than 300 years to do (or something like that – my facts have gotten a bit fuzzy since it’s been so long and I don’t really feel like looking it up).

Back to the floor. The floor is insane because it floods on the regular. We even saw seaweed inside it. It’s a regular occurrence for the cathedral to be closed because of this. And aside from all of that, the actual floor is completely warped and so are the walls at the bottom. But despite it all, it’s just so intricately beautiful with all of it’s little pieces of marble decorating it.

One of the main reasons that we booked this specific tour is that it included a gondola ride.

Here’s what’s crazy about gondola drivers – they earn more than lawyers and doctors! It’s been capped at 80 Euro per ride that you have because they were charging INSANE amounts on it to tourists who paid because of the experience. They weren’t regulated and as a result of the money, were apparently high or drunk on the regular. So much so that there was a serious accident that involved a German tourist dying in front of his kids. So they have since put a whole lot of laws in place to fix it.

Aside from that it’s bizarre how they do what they do. There are loads of them on the canals at any given time so they call out before they get to a corner to know whether they can go or not – no robots or anything. Just shouting at each other.

It was SUCH an experience

It’s not really that romantic experience that you picture as you share your boat with 6 other people, but still. Awesome and worth doing once to say you’ve done it.

Then it was time to frantically grab our bags and rush off to the station for our train to Rome. As it turns out, we were early enough to do a little bit of last minute shopping and indulge in a cream topped gelato. Yip you heard that right, it’s a thing that they do there. So we tried it. And if I liked cream I think I could see the appeal when you pair it with a dark chocolate gelato.

Once on the train for our 5 hour long trip to Rome I got settled in next to some guy who sat far too close to me despite all the space that he had on his side. All while watching Seth, who I had grown accustomed to seeing like this…

When we got to Rome a bit of panic set in trying to figure out how to get back to the airport. We were going to take the train but then heard that the bus was cheaper so got tickets for that but couldn’t figure out where the heck the bus stop was. After asking the ticket guy a couple hundred times and checking Google maps we eventually found it.

It turned out that we still had a fair bit of time to spare so we did some more last minute shopping and were sincerely grateful for lugging an extra fold up back in our back packs the entire trip. Well let’s be real, Seth lugged it around haha. We filled it up with gifts. Then had a quick bite of terrible sue (the only one we’d had the entire trip) before hopping on the bus to get to the airport.

We went to the check in with our backpacks and massive extra gift bag and hoped like crazy that they wouldn’t have to check it in. The guy looked at us a bit weirdly but waived us through which was great!

We arbed around looking at the stores that were closing around us and spending the last of the Euros that we had in our pockets. Then we bought a coffee before sitting down and waiting to board our first flight at 11pm to Ethipoia. It was a fairly uneventful flight there with very little sleep. My gosh, even though I was absolutely exhausted I just could not sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time.

Getting to Ethiopia in the day time was a real experience. I think I preferred it in the dark to be honest. Ignorance is bliss and all that.

Then the flight from there to Cape Town was also pretty average. Nothing exciting. But guys, you had to see how quickly we ran off the plane! I could not wait to grab my babies up in my arms and smother them with kisses. We could see them waiting through the glass with a great big sign. Ugh. My heart!!!

It was so awesome to be reunited but wow, from feeling completely carefree, I can’t tell you how the weight of responsibility that hit me when they placed their little hands in mine as we headed for the car. I think we forget how much we take on every day as parents looking after little people. It’s a lot.

Then we went home to our dogs who were happy and well looked after by our house sitters of awesomeness. We had tea with the family, shared some of the presents and then… life went back to normal.

Cindy, man. I’ve really loved reading every one of these updates. Although our holidays were fairly different, your experiences in Italy have allowed me to relive my honeymoon (Rome and Croatia) years ago, which has been awesome.
I’m so glad you got to have this trip, traveling really does something to you, hey?
So thanks 🙂 I know it’s a slog to write it all up, but for my part, I’ve loved it.

About Me

HI, I'M CINDY

I'm so glad that you've stopped by. Around these parts, there are three little people that call me Mom and sometimes "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" when I'm in trouble. You'll find lots of stories about parenting, parties and Cape Town. So pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee and make yourself at home.